Featuring Cathy Chong AM
There is a significant difference between leading a community and leading with one.
For Cathy Chong AM, that distinction has shaped a lifetime of contribution.
Her philosophy is grounded in participation. Leaders, she argues, need to be visible and present: not operating “from higher above”, but amongst the people whose lives are affected by the decisions being made. It is a philosophy she describes as “management by walking about”.
That belief has deep roots.
Cathy describes growing up in a third-generation Malaysian Chinese family whose history included displacement and poverty. Community, mutual help and volunteering were part of family life across generations. Later, arriving in South Australia during the Colombo Plan era, she became part of a small and closely connected Asian community in which relationships and mutual support were essential.
Her professional life in nursing reinforced those lessons.
Healthcare taught her about teamwork, responsibility and the necessity of showing up for others. She recalls periods when extraordinary circumstances demanded extraordinary commitment, including remaining at work for extended shifts when staffing was stretched during emergencies.
After retiring from nursing, Cathy did not retreat from public life. Instead, she describes becoming busier through full-time volunteering, extending her contribution across multicultural communities, Rotary and civic and business organisations.
Her story demonstrates something important about grassroots leadership: community is not simply the setting in which leadership occurs. It is a source of knowledge.
Leaders who remain close to people see things institutions can miss. They understand where systems are difficult to navigate, where people are excluded and where apparently small interventions might remove a significant barrier.
That kind of leadership also builds trust differently.
Trust cannot be demanded through position. It grows when people see that someone is prepared to listen, participate and remain engaged over time. And when communities have genuine ownership of change, solutions are more likely to reflect their priorities rather than assumptions made on their behalf.
This becomes particularly important in diverse communities.
Cathy’s own life has crossed cultures, languages, professions and generations. Rather than seeing those differences as obstacles to collective action, her experience points toward the value of connection across them.
Strong communities are not necessarily communities in which everyone has the same perspective. They are communities capable of bringing different perspectives into relationship.
For organisations and leaders, that requires proximity.
It means leaving the boardroom occasionally. It means listening before designing a response. It means recognising knowledge that sits outside formal institutions. And it means asking whether the people most affected by a decision have genuinely participated in shaping it.
Leadership may operate at a national scale, but its credibility is often established much closer to home.
Cathy Chong’s story reminds us that lasting change rarely begins with a community being told what it needs.
It begins when people are invited to shape it themselves.
Listen to the full conversation with Cathy Chong AM in Voices of Leadership: Extraordinary Impact, hosted by Vicki O’Halloran.
About the series
Voices of Leadership, Extraordinary Impact is a collaboration between the Order of Australia Association and Menzies Leadership Foundation, bringing to life the stories and insights of Australians recognised for their contribution and service.
Hosted by The Hon Vicki O’Halloran AO CVO FAICD, former President of the Order of Australia Association (2023-2026), the eight-part series explores the lived experiences, values and leadership lessons of Order of Australia recipients and what their stories can teach us about leading in service of others.
